Compared to the same week last year, however, retail sales declined 2.5% and foot traffic declined 3.3%.

"This final week of shopping before Christmas finished strong," said ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin. "Procrastinators finally headed to the stores and helped several days of this past week secure places as the best-performing retail days of the year."

ShopperTrak forecasts that Wednesday, Dec. 26, will be the fifth-best retail foot traffic day and the seventh-best sales day of the year.

"Shopping on the day after Christmas won't be as strong this year," said Martin. "Last year, Dec. 26 fell on a Monday. Many people had the day off, which they spent shopping. This year, the day after Christmas was a Wednesday - many people were back at work, not out in stores."

ShopperTrak will release its retail sales and foot traffic numbers for the week ending Dec. 29 as part of its holiday wrap-up news on Jan. 8.

Solutions Spotlight

The responsibilities of the retail CIO can essentially be boiled down to four major roles: Business Transformer, Customer Expert and Advocate, Technology Visionary and Culture Warrior. In this e-book, Oracle chief communications officer Bob Evans examines how great retail CIOs rise to challenges of fulfilling each role, even as they inevitably gravitate toward one role over the others.